Investors will be keeping an eye on eBay (EBAY) when the market opens Thursday. Shares in the online auction site dropped 7 percent in late trading Wednesday after the company posted a round of weak quarterly results and confirmed that CEO Meg Whitman will step aside at the end of March. “Meg’s passion for all things eBay changed the world,” Chairman Pierre Omidyar said in Wednesday’s press release. “With humor, smarts and unflappable determination, Meg took a small, barely known online auction site and helped it become an integral part of our lives.”
Despite Whitman’s many accomplishments, she leaves the company at a time when it’s facing tough challenges from the likes of Google (GOOG). Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky gave incoming chief John Donohue high marks for his candor and for his determination to shake up eBay, and noted that Whitman was noncommital about her plans beyond this year.
Whatever Whitman plans to do, she won’t have to worry about money. Since Halloween she has sold 2.56 million shares under a pre-arranged stock-sale plan, reaping profits of around $40 million. Over that same span eBay shares have lost a quarter of their value, wiping out some $12 billion in value. While no one can doubt Whitman has earned her keep over the years, the recent rush to cash out doesn’t exactly wind up her tenure on a high note.
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